Preparation and blood compatibility of electrospun PLA/curcumin composite membranes

In this article, curcumin-loaded electrospun Polylactic acid (PLA) composite membranes were prepared. Curcumin with different concentrations (1, 3 and 5 wt%) was loaded to the PLA membranes to study its anticoagulant property as a drug-eluting stent. X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization of the prepared membranes indicates that PLA and curcumin mix together well through the method of electrospinning and the composite membrane has larger crystallinity than that of PLA membrane. The in vitro blood compatibility of curcumin-eluting stents was investigated by static platelet adhesion and blood coagulation time (APTT and PT) tests, revealing that the blood compatibility of composite membranes is superior to the pure PLA membrane, and the blood compatibility significantly improves with curcumin concentration increasing by dint of observing SEM images and calculating the inhibition rate of platelet aggregation. Moreover, PLA/curcumin membrane can effectively prolong the blood coagulation time compared with the plasma, and the blood coagulation time of composite membranes improves significantly as curcumin concentration increasing.